On Living in UFO Hotspots

The recent series of Posts by AlyceClover has gotten me thinking about some of the mysterious events I’ve been around. I have the dubious distinction of having lived in two areas currently considered to be UFO hot spots; Pine Bush, New York, and Pascagoula, Mississippi. Pascagoula has the added distinction of being a hot spot for ghosts and haunted places.

Least I scare anyone off from reading further, let me say that I consider myself a skeptic about most anything and everything anyone makes claims about. But I also believe in following facts where ever they lead.

Pine Bush, New York

My family moved away from Long Island to the Pine Bush, New York, area in the summer of 1972. Little did we know that Pine Bush was already considered a major UFO hot spot From the Wikipedia:

Though sightings of UFOs in and around Pine Bush date back to the 1950s, the period of time between the late 1970s and the early 1990s saw a huge increase in UFO activity throughout the Town of Crawford area, as well as within, or near, the Village of Pine Bush proper. At one point in the mid-1980s, UFO sightings along West Searsville Road was nearly a nightly event. Hundreds of UFO enthusiasts would line the road each night and revel in the shooting blobs of colored light that would streak across the sky at absurd rates of speed. The crush of sight-seekers became so intense that travel along the road was hampered, leading local authorities to pass a special ordinance prohibiting parking along the otherwise rural stretch of road. Local long-time residents interviewed in 2003 still remembered the throngs of UFO enthusiasts, parked every summer night in front of their houses, sitting in lawnchairs with early-model video cameras at the ready. Other long-time area residents on the other side of town also have testified to witnessing unexplained bright-colored lights seen through local forest trees late at night. Two residents interviewed testified to being restrained in their bed with a harmless “force field” while non-verbal communications were expressed directly into their conscious thought, warning them not to open their eyes or else “they would be afraid”. When the “force-field” was lifted, the interviewee and her husband both sprang from their bed in time to see a medium-sized saucer-shaped craft with colored perimeter lights and tiny white orbiting tracers slowly lift off from the adjacent field and into the low cloud cover.

Although I joined the Navy and left home in June 1974, the spring and summer of 1973 proved to be a big year for UFO sightings. For the first time anywhere in print, I will make this admission; I did see something extremely mysterious one summer night in 1973.

I had an second-floor bedroom with windows facing out in two directions. One window faced the road across the large front field; the other faced the backyard and back woods. The house sat on ground higher than the road. In the spring of 1973, I was woken up about 3:00 AM one morning by a very bright green light flashing through the window facing the road. The light was intense enough to light up the entire room.  I remember lying in bed for a few moments, confused. By the time I realized something strange was going on and grabbed my glasses and jumped to the window, the light disappeared. I don’t know what it might have been, but I do know it had to be in midair, close to the window, and I don’t remember hearing helicopter noises.

So there you have it. UFO encounters or not, I do have something to add to the lore of Pine Bush Ufology. Although UFO sightings seem to have dropped off in recent years the town is amazingly proud of their notoriety, considering that otherwise it’s a pretty conservative place. There’s even a “Cup and Saucer Diner” (as in UFO flying saucer), and a UFO barber shop on the main street in town (209) packed with local UFO memorabilia and photographs.

Pascagoula, Mississippi

The second place I’ve lived with a UFO history is the town next door to Pascagoula, Mississippi. My first wife and I moved there in June 1993 to pick up a ship being built in the local shipyard, and I ended up staying 13 years.

The UFO notoriety of Pascagoula stems from a reported abduction of October 11, 1973 of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker. It’s colloquially known as as the Pascagoula Abduction and, after the Hill Abduction, among the best-known reports of alien abductions. From the Wikipedia:

On the evening of October 11, 1973, 42-year-old Charles Hickson and 19-year-old Calvin Parker — co-workers at a shipyard — were fishing in the Pascagoula River in Mississippi. While fishing off of a pier at an abandoned shipyard, they heard a whirring/whizzing sound, saw flashing blue lights, and reported that a domed, football-shaped aircraft, some 100 feet across, suddenly appeared near them. The ship seemed to levitate about 14 inches above the ground.

A door opened on the ship, they said, and three creatures emerged and seized the men, floating or levitating them into the craft. Both men reported being paralyzed and numb. Parker fainted due to fright. They described the creatures as being roughly humanoid in shape, and standing about five feet tall. The creatures’ skin was gray and wrinkled, and they had no eyes or mouths that the men could discern. There were three “carrot-like” growths instead – one where the nose would be on a human, the other two where ears would normally be. The beings had lobster-like claws at the ends of their arms, and they seemed to have only one leg (Hickson later described the creatures’ lower bodies looking as if their legs were fused together).

On the ship, Hickson claimed that he was somehow levitated or hovered a few feet above the floor of the craft, and was examined by a mechanical eye that seemed to scan his body. Parker could not recall what had happened to him inside the craft, although later, during sessions of hypnotic regression he offered some hazy details. The men were released after about 20 minutes and the creatures levitated them back to their original position on the river bank.

The Wikipedia entry goes on in great detail about the aftermath including the way these two men reported the incident. I find this case fascinating for two reasons:

1. One, because I know all the places mentioned in this account, including the “abandoned shipyard” referenced.  That would be a place I passed while boating on many occasions during the last several years I lived in Pascagoula.  Even when I knew the area, 2002 to 2006, that was still a very lonely stretch of the lower Pascagoula River.
2. Two, because I know Pascagoula to be a Conservative area, and a report about UFO abduction is not something people in this area would normally be considered to make up.

The Pascagoula area is considered a UFO hot spot with historical significance, recorded sightings, and military presence. There has been a number of recorded cases of UFO encounters including a USO (unidentified submerged object) that involved the US Coast Guard.

The Pascagoula River also has its own legend dating from the time of the original Native Americans of the Pascagoula Tribe. The river was once known as the “Singing River,” and the legend is that on quiet nights, one can hear singing from the lower eight miles, right where it courses through the coastal towns.

I cannot claim to have ever seen anything mysterious while living in Pine Bush. But a few people I did know well would on occasion make references to strange lights in the sky and other goings-ons around the lower river. Ghost stories and legends about local residences were very common, with quite a few people I knew not at all embarrassed about making claims of seeing ghosts.

So there we have it. Just something I thought I’d write about on this otherwise dreary Sunday afternoon while Winnie is away at work.

Have a great day!